


When Darkness Comes

by arrowsgirlfriday



Series: Tell the World [6]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-08-07 12:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16408346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrowsgirlfriday/pseuds/arrowsgirlfriday
Summary: It's the night of the undertaking and Tommy Merlyn is torn. He hates his father, he loves his wife and he just wants to help as many people as he can.





	1. Chapter 1

_May 1st, 2013_

People buzzing around, cries were heard everywhere, scared pleas from helpless people, it all sort of faded down to a drawn out noise that Tommy was trying his best to shut out. He wouldn’t - couldn’t- get distracted by the despair that was tangible around him. He was anxious, his wife hadn’t called nor answered his calls, his best friend hadn’t answered his phone either and he knew that they had been doing their best to prevent the earthquake, so now he assumed they were doing their best to help as many people as possible. He also knew that bad news traveled quickly, so he was trying to keep calm. Logically he knew that the strong seismic activity had made all electricity and most radio communication signals were useless right now. He knew this. But the panic was starting to creep in, his chest was feeling tighter with every passing second. He shook his head as a nurse called out his name. His patients needed him. 

Another half hour passed and he nearly wept with relief when his phone started ringing. But even so he couldn’t stop, he’d put on his headset just in case anyone called and he was busy, so he could answer when they needed him. 

“Tommy!” As soon as he picked up, the terrified voice of his wife called out his name. He felt like he could breathe better. His hands kept on the almost mechanical motion of sewing a nasty injury on a girl no older than Thea. 

“Felicity! Are you okay? We’re swamped at the hospital, people are coming in with all kinds of injuries. Where are you?” As soon as the girl was done, two boys of around 9 and 6 came in sobbing, the oldest was trying to calm the younger through his sobs. And youngest had his left arm twisted unnaturally, a huge piece of glass stuck to his elbow. 

“I-” Tommy had to take a deep breath, prioritize, “sit over here, do you want to hold, what’s your name?”

The older one spoke up: “Ben, and he’s Alex, he’s five.”

“Alright Ben, wanna hold your brother’s other hand?” He got a syringe and filled it with anesthesia and then injected Alex with it. “You won’t feel this.” 

“Tommy,” his wife’s sob nearly broke him, but if she was calling, she was fine. And - “I love you.” _No._ He told the kids to wait for a minute there. He knew that doing so wasn’t correct or kind or anything even remotely resembling professional, but he couldn’t deal with her voice on the verge of a breakdown and that there wasn’t much he could do until the meds started to kick in on Alex's arm.

“Where are you Felicity?” 

A pause. “I’m at Verdant.” Before he could get a word in, she carried on “I tried to stop the device, and I got the one, but there’s another and I was too-too late.” 

“Sunshine, you saved a lot of lives, it could’ve been much worse.” He checked his watch, he hated this, being torn between his wife and his call to help as many people as possible. 

“I know, but -” 

“But nothing!” Tommy told her forcefully, and taking a deep breath to try and calm himself he continued. “Why don’t you come on over here? I’m sure we could use the extra hands.”

“I’d love to, but Tommy-”

“Why are you still at Verdant? Please tell me you’re just sitting at the bar, maybe wondering why you accepted to work with him.”

“Tommy-”

“Because I know that he wouldn’t put you at risk because you’re the love of my life and I would never-”

“Tommy! Listen to me! I’m stuck and I know you can’t come for me and Oliver’s not answering his phone, he went to get Laurel and I think she-” Felicity let out a sob and it nearly broke him, “I don’t think she made it.” 

“Felicity, I can- I’ll-”

“I love you and maybe Oliver or Digg will get to me in time, but the stairs collapsed and I’m stuck underneath what I’m pretty sure is the ceiling, and I just can’t bear the thought that I won’t see you again and-”

“Felicity! You will see me again because you’re not going to die in there, okay? You hear me? Felicity?”

But because today was just a crappy day, the call disconnected, and he hoped, he prayed, that it had been because the cell signal all around the city was going crazy and not because the phone got destroyed along with his wife. He couldn’t go down that train of thought. He needed to help her. 

“Merlyn, where’s your girl?” one of the paramedics, Jason, asked him. He’d surely heard his desperate pleas. 

“She-” he debated between telling him she was at Verdant, but he’d surely discover Oliver’s lair… then he got angry, he couldn’t choose between Oliver’s secret and Felicity’s life. There was really no other option. “She’s at Verdant, she was- Hell if I know what she was still doing there-” 

“I’ll go check it out man. I know my way around this city.” He was already stepping out of the ER, towards the street before Tommy could’ve let out a single word, but he had to know. 

“You’d do that? For me?” he asked, numb. He wasn’t expecting any favors, not after his father had destroyed half of the city.

“In my mind you’re no son of Malcolm Merlyn, and your girl, Felicity, she’s a good kid, doesn’t deserve to -” he caught himself and continued “I’m going to get her out, okay?”

He could do nothing more than nod at him, the implications that he might be too late, that he didn’t know where Felicity was and in which condition, if she was even - No, he stopped himself, he wouldn’t even think about it, she was fine, maybe a broken leg or arm. But she’d - his phone started ringing, Oliver. Oliver fucking Queen. He better be calling to tell him that he’d found Felicity.

“Where are you?”

“Near CNRI- Laurel… she-”

“Not to sound uncaring, but you need to get Felicity out from Verdant. And I’m not asking. Now!”

“I-”

“Do it!”

He hung up the phone angrily, there was nothing else for him to do, except work on helping save as many people as possible. Starting with Ben and Alex.


	2. When you're feeling lost

The whole hospital feels more and more like a haphazard triage, not enough beds, not enough medicine, not enough doctors. 

People on the floor, in the waiting room chairs, using the staff rest area, even the cafeteria has injured people. The dead toll is getting larger, and it’s just been four hours since the earthquake. 

Two hours since he last spoke to his wife. Jason hasn’t come back, he hopes it’s not because he’s dead. Building are still collapsing, nothing inside is safe near the Glades. Everything could just fall down and leave even more people injured if not dead. 

Malcolm truly is a sick bastard. 

But there’s no point in thinking about Malcolm and his wife. There’s nothing he can do in regards of either, he knows this and he hates it. He’s taking a short break, he needs to clear his mind, eat a little. He shakes his head and tries to live in the now, and as he walks down the hallway he notices the boys from before: Alex dozing against his brother’s shoulder, dried tear tracks evident on both their faces. He feels himself remembering that first day after his mom passed away, how lonely, how angry, how desolate he felt.

“How are you guys holding up? Is your mom in surgery?” 

Ben tries to shrug, but doesn't want to lift his head from his brother's shoulder, “Mom didn’t get out.” 

Tommy doesn’t ask, he can guess what he’s talking about, he’s pretty sure he knows what he’s talking about. Everyone’s focusing on saving lives, displaced people are a problem for a later time, he knows this. But he wants these kids to be near family, near their loved ones. “Do you know your dad’s phone number?”

“No, he’s in heaven with Gramma Bea.” he said as if reciting from memory, his brother now fully awake again just nodded in agreement. Tommy just couldn’t deal with this today. Fuck. He just couldn’t, but he also couldn’t just break down in front of him, so he just numbly nodded. 

“I’ll-” he cleared his throat, “Have you eaten? Had some water?”

At their simultaneous nods he sighed and got on up, “Good. I’ll try and check in with you guys later, kay?” 

He kept on walking towards, well, towards anywhere really. He didn’t know where to go, his plan for food forgotten. So after getting back onto the small stall that was his section, he took a shuddering breath and exhaled slowly. He hated this feeling of helplessness, of impotence, of not being able to do anything. But...

That wasn’t right, he could do something. He could keep on treating people, helping people, it’s why he decided to become a doctor, and so he would keep on doing just that. 

It could’ve been minutes or hours or even days, he didn’t know. But he knew that Ben and Alex had eaten and were just hanging around the place, not knowing where to go because they kept ending up with him and asking about the patients he was treating at the time. He knew that cellphones weren’t working and that the 911 commuter was at full capacity, as was also the hospital he was in. He knew that everyone was on, students, residents, doctors, nurses, paramedics. Everyone was working on fumes by now, their capacity for empathy had emptied out a while ago and though no one was uncaring, they didn’t flinch at hearing the patients’ stories. 

So far no one had recognized him as Malcom Merlyn’s son, or if they did they didn’t hold it against him. It was well known that he hadn’t been seen with him since his wedding to Felicity almost three years ago. He felt his heart get heavy with dread, maybe they wouldn’t get to celebrate another- no. They would celebrate their anniversary this year, again, and next year and the next. They would. “Thomas!” his attending, Dr. Graham called out for him. And he certainly appreciated the fact that he didn’t call him by his last name, that would probably not go well with the people stationed all around the place. 

He rushed there as he realized Jason was standing next to him, carrying Felicity through the ER doors. “Felicity! Is she -” he gulped, “how-” he looked helplessly at them and Jason quickly shook his head. 

“She’s alive, but her leg’s pretty messed up. She sustained no injuries to her spine, though she probably has a grade 2 or 3 concussion. Passed out as the Hood and I were taking concrete off of it, the sudden blood flow to it must have been excruciating. All she said was to call you and then she blacked out.” Tommy peered over at his wife, she was breathing and had been coherent before she lost consciousness, she’d be fine. “Thank you Jason, I can take it from here.” 

“No offense man, but you look like you’re about to pass out. Let me take her to the waiting room for the OR at least.” 

“Yes, thank you.” Tommy nodded and followed after them. 

They got her set up on a just emptied cot and though Tommy would’ve loved to stay next to her and see if she woke up, he knew he couldn’t do that.He had to help, it was all hands on deck. So to avoid having her wake up alone and scared and since Ben and Alex had shown up seconds after seeing Jason and Felicity, following after them all in curiosity, he decided to ask them a favor. 

He explained to them that Felicity was his wife and that he couldn’t stay with her because other people needed his help, but if they could please look after her, and if she woke could one of them get him, he'd be very grateful. They agreed immediately and Tommy let out a small smile, “You two are champs, I’ll take you to her.” 

And Alex went for him when Felicity woke up an hour later, slightly freaking out about where Tommy was. Ben calmed her down by telling her how he had helped them and asked them to help her, and with a very serious face he declared that she was going to be okay. She gave him a watery smile and Tommy showed up with Alex slightly behind him. After their reunion Felicity thanked the boys, asked her husband to please give her a hug and promptly started crying. 

Finally, after several hours of waiting because all the ORs were in use and booked for life-threatening surgeries, Felicity got her leg fixed up and sent on her way, meaning that she’d have to recover at home, but thanks to some cajoling with Dr. Graham, she was allowed to stay until Tommy had to leave. 

“So, you know how I was all ‘I’m gonna die in here’?”

“Kinda hard to forget,” he leaned down, touching his forehead to hers and breathing her in shakily. 

“Yeah, well,” she raised her face and gave him a soft kiss, “the thing that I left out is that I definitely want to spend the rest of my life with you and that I-”

“Thank goodness seeing as we’re married,” Tommy jokingly interrupted her and Felicity gave a short laugh, followed by a slight wince that she tried to hide by smiling and kept one talking. “I should have listened to you, I didn’t mean what I said and ever since I left our apartment I regretted my words. Do you think you can forgive me?” 

He sat down on his side of the bed and held her hand. “You can’t get rid of me that easily. And you were forgiven as soon as you left. I love you. So much, and I am aware that I’m selfish and still I want to do better, be better for you, for us.”

“I love you Tommy, and I’m really glad I didn’t die.” Felicity was smiling at him, and her brow had a stitch, her cheekbone was bruised and she’d just had surgery two day ago. But he was fully, completely, irrevocably in love with her. Those moments where she was missing and he had no way of reaching her had been agonizing, and he never wanted to feel that way again. 

“I’m really glad you’re alive and with me, darling.”


End file.
